Hey Folks,
About a month ago I started on this project and I thought now might be a good time to get some feedback on what I'm planning to do because eventually I'll be doing a run of these.
I'm creating the "definitive" Tobin's Spirit Guide. A lot of people have the RPG version of the book but I always found it disappointing. For starters it's full of RPG stuff which takes away from the feel of a real reference text. My biggest problem with it though is that it's clearly written for kids. By that I mean that the writing is cute and light hearted. Not nearly what the true volume from the films would have been or was meant to be.
I'm no stranger to printed props. In past I've done the Grail Diary, Rasputin's Spell Book, and countless other smaller items. I've even made a starting dent in the Gutenberg Bible (that dream is not dead!).
I'm creating it do be organized in a similar fashion to how the RPG Tobin's is laid out. It will have 13 sections:
1-THE COMMON TYPES OF SPIRITS
2-CLASSIFYING A SPIRIT
3-EGYPT AND THE DARK CONTINENT
4-THE MIDDLE EAST
5-THE BRITISH ISLES
6-WESTERN EUROPE
7-EASTERN EUROPE
8-FORMER RUSSIAN EMPIRE
9-SOUTH ASIA
10-NORTH AMERICA
11-SOUTH AMERICA
12-FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE OTHERWORLDLY
13-INDEX OF SPIRITS
The book will have a publishing year of 1920 so the hope is to write it as a text of that era would be written with all the predjudices of the age (hence the "Dark Continent" instead of Africa and "Former Russian Empire" instead of the Soviet Union). The idea is to include every pre-1920 ghost/spirit from all the different Ghostbusters films, games, and cartoons. For filler I'll be adding famous ghosts from other sources, both real and imagined.
I already have some help on this. dbalschi has graciously taken on the RGB ghost list and has been doing research for me sending me notes on each goul. He will be rewarded with a free Tobin's and his name in the story of his select ghost (but I won't tell, you guys will have to find it!).
Organic Mechanic has also sent me his 1950's volume of the Encyclopedia of Deamons and Witches which I will be able to pull some valuable info from.
For the presentation I have a large collection of books from that era (WW1 is one of my favourite history topics and so I have a lot of first hand accounts from 1912-1922) so I think I'll be able to make this look very accurate to what it should be.
For illustrations I'm thinking sticking with B&W ink drawings in a similar style to this gentleman's work:
Browsing deviantART
When I do finish I will be getting these professionally printed and will be using edition numbers to mark my runs. First Edition, second edition, etc. That way those who get them early can still have the feeling of exclusivity. I would LOVE to get one of these puppies signed by all four ghostbusters!
So. What are people's thoughts? Are there any pre-1920 ghosts from outside the franchise that you'd like to see in the book? Does anyone else want to help Daniel and I with research?
Any and all thoughts/criticism is appreciated! This is NOT an interest or sale thread. I'm looking for your imput.
About a month ago I started on this project and I thought now might be a good time to get some feedback on what I'm planning to do because eventually I'll be doing a run of these.
I'm creating the "definitive" Tobin's Spirit Guide. A lot of people have the RPG version of the book but I always found it disappointing. For starters it's full of RPG stuff which takes away from the feel of a real reference text. My biggest problem with it though is that it's clearly written for kids. By that I mean that the writing is cute and light hearted. Not nearly what the true volume from the films would have been or was meant to be.
I'm no stranger to printed props. In past I've done the Grail Diary, Rasputin's Spell Book, and countless other smaller items. I've even made a starting dent in the Gutenberg Bible (that dream is not dead!).
I'm creating it do be organized in a similar fashion to how the RPG Tobin's is laid out. It will have 13 sections:
1-THE COMMON TYPES OF SPIRITS
2-CLASSIFYING A SPIRIT
3-EGYPT AND THE DARK CONTINENT
4-THE MIDDLE EAST
5-THE BRITISH ISLES
6-WESTERN EUROPE
7-EASTERN EUROPE
8-FORMER RUSSIAN EMPIRE
9-SOUTH ASIA
10-NORTH AMERICA
11-SOUTH AMERICA
12-FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE OTHERWORLDLY
13-INDEX OF SPIRITS
The book will have a publishing year of 1920 so the hope is to write it as a text of that era would be written with all the predjudices of the age (hence the "Dark Continent" instead of Africa and "Former Russian Empire" instead of the Soviet Union). The idea is to include every pre-1920 ghost/spirit from all the different Ghostbusters films, games, and cartoons. For filler I'll be adding famous ghosts from other sources, both real and imagined.
I already have some help on this. dbalschi has graciously taken on the RGB ghost list and has been doing research for me sending me notes on each goul. He will be rewarded with a free Tobin's and his name in the story of his select ghost (but I won't tell, you guys will have to find it!).
Organic Mechanic has also sent me his 1950's volume of the Encyclopedia of Deamons and Witches which I will be able to pull some valuable info from.
For the presentation I have a large collection of books from that era (WW1 is one of my favourite history topics and so I have a lot of first hand accounts from 1912-1922) so I think I'll be able to make this look very accurate to what it should be.
For illustrations I'm thinking sticking with B&W ink drawings in a similar style to this gentleman's work:
Browsing deviantART
When I do finish I will be getting these professionally printed and will be using edition numbers to mark my runs. First Edition, second edition, etc. That way those who get them early can still have the feeling of exclusivity. I would LOVE to get one of these puppies signed by all four ghostbusters!
So. What are people's thoughts? Are there any pre-1920 ghosts from outside the franchise that you'd like to see in the book? Does anyone else want to help Daniel and I with research?
Any and all thoughts/criticism is appreciated! This is NOT an interest or sale thread. I'm looking for your imput.
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